It was the federal government’s fall fiscal update — which promised a new infusion of federal infrastructure dollars, specifically for public transit.

In total, the Trudeau government is now promising $25.3 billion for urban mass transit projects across Canada — which they’ve done by adding another $8 billion to the final two years of what is now a 12-year plan.

The fiscal update document specifically lists the west leg of Edmonton Valley Line LRT is a priority project that could get funding through this new program.

“In the past, maybe in my wildest dreams, I thought we could begin construction by 2023 or 2021,” says Knack.

Guy Boston, the city’s new manager of LRT delivery, concurs. It’s not inconceivable, he says, that construction on the west leg could begin in 2019 — or even, if stars align, in 2018.

The completed Valley Line is meant to run from Mill Woods in the southeast to Lewis Farms in the northwest, a route of 27 kilometres.

But right now, the city only has the funds — $1.8 billion — to build the first 13 kilometres of the line, from the downtown to the Mill Woods transit centre.

The west line, though, would run west down Stony Plain Road and 87 Avenue, connecting the downtown to West Edmonton Mall and beyond, with 14 stops along the way. Completing both halves of the system could turn the Valley Line from another orphan spur line, into a true transportation corridor, linking the city end-to-end.

The working budget for the west line is currently $1.65 billion.

In September, the city received $288 million from the new federal Public Transit Infrastructure Fund. But it only put $20 million of that toward design engineering work on the west LRT. The rest went toward other transit projects.

So getting more money from Ottawa to begin work on the line in earnest will require a whole new ask. Boston says the city has until the spring of 2018 to apply.

There are no guarantees. But federal infrastructure minister — and former Edmonton city councillor, Amarjeet Sohi — is sending out promising signals.

“It means that the federal government can fund such a project, if it is municipal priority,” he told me this week via email.

The southeast leg of the Valley Line, which has only just begun construction, isn’t supposed to be finished until 2020. That might mean the city would be starting work on the next leg before the first one were finished.

That sounds daunting. But Knack says it could hypothetically save the city money and time, since workers who finished at one site could then get right to work on the other, with the same equipment.

Boston agrees.

“Right off the top, you eliminate a lot of your mobilization costs,” he says. “It’s not exactly an economy of scale, but you get economies of project management and project delivery. You don’t need to stop to retool.”

It’s pretty easy for Edmontonians to feel jaded about LRT these days, with the Metro Line still not running to speed, still causing traffic snarls and train delays all along the light rail system.

But a fast-tracked Valley line, which is its own “autonomous” urban streetcar system, not directly tied into the existing LRT tracks, could renew enthusiasm — serving not just students, shoppers and commuters, but the thousands of tourists who visit Edmonton’s most popular attraction each year.

Add to that all the possibilities for infill and transit-oriented development through Oliver, Jasper Place and Meadowlark, and you can understand Knack’s excitement.

This is no done deal, though. The city would need provincial support.

“That’s still one piece of the puzzle left,” Knack acknowledges.

The Notley government is pinching every penny, while oil prices and tax revenues plunge. You can’t blame them, in the current fiscal and political climate. Still, this is the kind of green urban renewal project an NDP government — with its base in Edmonton — should embrace and champion, even if it means staging provincial funding over several years.

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